Registering access device multimedia content via a broadband access gateway

ABSTRACT

A system and method of registering or exchanging information about the availability of multimedia information and services is disclosed. Access devices in a wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or personal area network (PAN) may register, with a wireless broadband access gateway, selected information about multimedia information and services that they have and may share. Information about the available multimedia information and services may be shared by the wireless broadband access gateway with other access devices within the coverage area of the WLAN or PAN. Access devices may then access the multimedia information and services of other access devices via the wireless broadband access gateway, based upon information identifying and authenticating the recipient. A broadband connection permits the gateway to pass multimedia information and service activity to and from the access devices within the coverage area of the WLAN or PAN.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application makes reference to, claims priority to, andclaims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.60/563,894, entitled “Method And System For Handling And BackhaulingTraffic From A Wired And/Or Wireless WAN, LAN, And/Or PAN Using ABroadband Access Gateway” (Attorney Docket No. 15656US01 BP3607), filedApr. 16, 2004, the complete subject matter of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

The present application makes reference to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/021,294, entitled “Method And System For Extended Network AccessServices Advertising Via A Broadband Access Gateway” (Attorney DocketNo. 15723US02 BU3607.2), filed Dec. 23, 2004, the complete subjectmatter of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, in itsentirety.

The present application also makes reference to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/039,020, entitled “Method And System For ProvidingRegistration, Authentication, And Access Via A Broadband Access Gateway”(Attorney Docket No. 15724US02 BU3607.3), filed Jan. 18, 2005, thecomplete subject matter of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference, in its entirety.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

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[MICROFICHE/COPYRIGHT REFERENCE]

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

One major common problem faced by cellular and landline serviceproviders is market competition. In today's climate of competitivemarkets, cellular service providers have found that one way for them togrow market share and defend their businesses is to be proactive andform alliances, and to partner with landline service providers. Inaddition, cellular service providers seek to differentiate their serviceofferings, and to capture the largest portion of market revenue bymeeting an ever increasing demand for access to a wide range of mediaforms such as MP3 encoded audio, still and video imaging, data, instantmessaging, and email. In a similar manner, the landline serviceproviders have found that to grow market share and ward off competition,they too must be proactive and form alliances, and to partner withcellular service providers. Support for broad economical access to theseconverging forms of communication is needed to enable unfettered marketgrowth, and to support the development and use of new handheld devicesneeded to provide increasing levels of mobile multimedia communicationfunctionality.

Although the formation of alliances and partnerships between cellularservice providers and landline service providers may help to ward offcompetition, such alliances and partnerships are faced with otherproblems. For example, the erection of cellular infrastructure such ascellular towers may be an expensive venture since this may requireacquisition of real estate, whether in the form of outright purchases orthrough leasing. Cellular infrastructure also requires the establishmentof one or more expensive backbone links to handle core network traffic.Another cellular-related problem is that the cellular signals do notpenetrate and propagate in buildings such as homes and offices verywell. This is especially true with the frequencies that are typicallyutilized in the United States, which may vary between 800 MHz and 1900MHz or 1.9 GHz.

The use of digital media is growing at an extremely rapid pace. Mostconsumers today have a variety of devices that gather, store, process,generate, communicate, play back, and/or display informationelectronically, in a digital form. Examples of such devices includedigital still and video cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs),laptop and desktop personal computer (PC) systems, video cassetterecorders (VCRs), personal video recorders (PVRs), document and photoscanners, digital and high definition television sets, stereo audioequipment, and cellular phones, to name only a few. Many times, thismultimedia information is of interest to others, and the consumer has adesire to share the information with friends, family, and businessassociates. In some situations, the exchange may be accomplished byattaching copies of the information to electronic mail sent to thosewith whom the information is to be shared. In other situations, physicalmedia containing a copy of the information may be sent by regular mailor express carriers, or delivered personally. The act of electronicallysharing copies of multimedia information can be confusing even when theindividual with whom the information is to be shared is physically withthe individual doing the sharing.

Although technically savvy individuals may make such informationavailable via, for example, an Internet web page, most consumers have nomeans of sharing electronic information in a convenient manner, whilestill maintaining control over who has access. The individual having ause for the information may not be aware that it is available. Most actsof sharing electronic forms of information subject to change, requiresrepeated, active involvement in providing updated copies. For example,information such as a personal calendar, address book, or telephonedirectory, may be of use to business associates or family members.Making certain that others that may make use of the information have themost recent copies currently requires active effort to effect theupdates. Access to information on devices such as those listed abovetypically involves cabling the device that is the source of theinformation to the device that is to receive the information, and theuse of software for transferring the information. The physicalconnection of cables between pieces of equipment, and the configurationand use of software for such a transfer is an intimidating activity formany users. This limits the exchange of such digital information tothose having familiarity with the processes involved in sharing.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention asset forth in the remainder of the present application with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and method for supporting sharing of at least one of multimediainformation and media-related services among a plurality of accessdevices, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection withat least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects, and novel features of the presentinvention, as well as details of illustrated embodiments, thereof, willbe more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an architecture of an exemplarycommunications system in which a representative embodiment of thepresent invention may be practiced.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram illustrating an exemplary communicationsystem, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 shows an illustration of an exemplary administration screen thatmay correspond to a screen displayed on an access device in thecommunication system shown in FIG. 2, for example, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A shows an exemplary multimedia information screen that may beaccessed by selecting the “Digital Video Camera” entry of the “Devices”column of FIG. 3, for example, and that may contain informationcorresponding to the multimedia information stored on the digital videocamera of FIG. 2, for example, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B shows an exemplary device services screen containing informationcorresponding to the multimedia services available on the digital videocamera of FIG. 2, for example, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5A shows an exemplary multimedia information screen that may beaccessed by selecting the “Mobile Multimedia Handset” entry of the“Devices” column of FIG. 3, for example, and that may containinformation corresponding to the multimedia information stored on amobile multimedia handset that may be represented by the access deviceof FIG. 2, for example, in accordance with a representative embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary device services screen containing informationcorresponding to the multimedia services available on the mobilemultimedia handset referred to in the description of FIG. 5A, forexample, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 shows an illustration of an exemplary display that may be visibleon an access device that may correspond, for example, to the accessdevice of FIG. 2, upon entering the coverage area of a wireless gateway,in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary display subsequent to the selection of thevideo entertainment icon in the network services indicator area of thedisplay of FIG. 6, for example, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary display subsequent to the selection of thestereo entertainment icon in the network services indicator area of thedisplay of FIG. 6, for example, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of supportingthe registration of access device data in a wireless broadband accessgateway such as, for example, the gateway and router of FIG. 2, inaccordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of supportingthe registration of access device data by an access device with awireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, the gateway androuter of FIG. 2, in accordance with a representative embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention relate to the seamless merging of widearea networks, from any kind of wired and/or wireless wide areanetworks, to pockets of wired and/or wireless local area networks andpersonal area networks, which may be located in homes or otherenvironment such as an office or business. More specifically, aspects ofthe present invention pertain to the registration or sharing, via abroadband access gateway, of information describing multimediainformation and media-related services that may be available on aplurality of access devices in communication with the gateway. Thebroadband access gateway may distribute selected portions of thedescriptive information, to permit authorized users of the access deviceto be aware of and access the multimedia information and services. Sucha gateway may permit broadband network access via, for example, apersonal cellular microcell, a personal area network (PAN), a wired orwireless wide area network (WAN), wireless local area network (WLAN) orother type of network located within a premises such as, for example, ahome, office, business, or the like. Services that may be available viasuch a broadband gateway connection include, for example, access to thepublic switched telephone network (PSTN); Internet protocol (IP) phoneaccess; extended access to commercial cellular and PCS networks such as,for example, TDMA, CDMA, and GSM; and access to and/or control of avariety of multimedia access devices or networked resources capable ofproviding streams of images, still pictures, video, and audio; to nameonly a few. Examples of multimedia information include streaming video,broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitizedstill images, digitized video, and digitized music. The merging of thesevarious types of networks may enable transparent communication of alltypes of media between access devices, which may be coupled in a wiredor wireless fashion to one or more of these networks. In an embodimentof the present invention, access to services available through awireless broadband gateway may be simplified, permitting their use by awider group of users of access devices in, for example, homes, offices,and businesses.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an architecture of an exemplarycommunications system in which a representative embodiment of thepresent invention may be practiced. Referring to FIG. 1, there is showna first location 102, a second location 104, a broadband access provider(BAP) 106, public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, a transportnetwork 110, wireless networks including CDMA network 112 and GSMnetwork 114, and access devices 126 and 128. The first location 102comprises a gateway 118 having a modem 116, a wireless interface(s)block 120, and the access devices 122, 124. The access devices 122, 124,126, 128 may comprise, for example, a mobile multimedia handset having ahigh level of functionality such as, for example, that of one or more ofa digital video or still camera, a portable audio (MP3) player, apersonal digital assistant, and a voice handset. The access devices 122,124, 126, 128 may be capable of operating using, for example, a personalarea network and/or wireless local area network compliant with, forexample, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, and/or IEEE 802.15.3aultra-wideband standards. The second location 104 comprises a router 130having a modem 132, and a plurality of wireless access devices. Theplurality of wireless access devices at the second location 104 maycomprise a personal computer (PC) 138, a laptop 136 and a wirelesspersonal digital assistant (PDA) 134. A peripheral such as a digitalcamera 142 may be coupled to the personal computer 138. Otherperipherals such as printers, digital scanners, speakers, and the like,which are not shown, may also be coupled to the personal computer 138and/or laptop 136. The wireless interface block 120 may comprise aplurality of interfaces such as a Bluetooth interface, an IEEE 802.15.3aultra-wideband interface, and any combination of an IEEE 802.11a, b, gand/or n interface.

FIG. 1 also comprises an “other broadband access provider” block 144, an“other cellular/PCS service provider” block 146, a central control andmanagement block 148, and content provider 150. The “other broadbandaccess provider block 144” may be, for example, a cable, DSL, or othertype of broadband access provider. The central control and managementblock 148 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may beadapted to handle content delivery and security functions such asauthentication, validation, key or certificate management, andauthorization. The central control and management block 148 may also beadapted to handle provisioning and service management. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, the central controland management block 148 may establish communications links with, forexample, the gateway 118, the broadband access provider 106, the otherbroadband access provider 144, the other cellular/PCS service provider146, the CDMA network 112, and the GSM network 114 using actual orvirtual connections.

The broadband access provider 106 may be, for example, a cable operator,telephone company, or satellite operator providing Internet access alongwith other communication services. In instances where BAP 106 is atelephone company, broadband service to locations 102, 104 may beprovided via DSL or other broadband access technology. Accordingly, themodems 116, 132 may be DSL modems. In instances where BAP 106 is a cableoperator, broadband service to locations 102, 104 may be provided viacable. Accordingly, the modems 116, 132 may be DOCSIS compliant or othertype of cable modem. Given the rapid decrease in the cost of leasedtelephone lines over the past decade or more, the connection to thelocation 102, 104 may also be T1 or T3 connections. For example, aswitch located at a central office (CO) (not shown) may be utilized tocouple a T1 or T3 connection between the second location 104 and thePSTN 108.

The gateway 118 may comprise an integrated DSL modem, cable modem orother high-speed modem that may be required for handling a connectionsuch as a T1 or T3 connection. Alternatively, the gateway 118 may becoupled to an external DSL modem, cable modem or other high-speed modemthat may be capable of handling connections such as a T1 or a T3connection. The gateway 118 may be adapted so that it has access toprotocol stack information that may be related to the GSM and/or CDMAnetworks 114, 112, respectively. The gateway 118 may also be adapted toprovide protocol support for communication with “other cellular/PCSservice provider” block 146.

Each of the CDMA and GSM networks 112, 114 may comprise a plurality ofcell sites (a/k/a cellular towers) that are located in geographicalcells within each of the networks. Within the GSM network 114, each ofthe cell sites such as, for example, cell site 114 a may comprise a basetransceiver station (BTS), and one or more base transceiver stations(BTSs) may be coupled to wireless carrier central office 114 b. Thewireless carrier central office 114 b may comprise a base stationcontroller/radio network controller (BSC/RNC) such as BSC/RNC 114 d. Oneor more base station controllers/radio network controllers (BSCs/RNCs)may be coupled to the core network 114 e, that comprises a network edgeswitch called a mobile switching center (MSC), such as MSC 114 g, and aserving GPRS support node (SGSN)/packet data serving node (PDSN) 114 f,of the GSM network 114. The mobile switching center may be coupled to,for example, the PSTN 108 via the transport network 110. As an accessdevice moves out of range of a first cell site to within range of asecond cell site, the decrease signal power received from the first cellsite and the increase in signal power received from the second cell sitecauses initiation of handoff of a call from the first cell site to thesecond cell site. In cases where there is no second cell site to handoffto, the call may be maintained by the first cell site power until it isattenuated to a threshold where it is no longer feasible to maintain thecall. At the point where the power reaches or falls below thisthreshold, the call may drop and any related call resources may berelinquished. In a home and/or office environment, it may be desirableto have a second network to which the call may be handed off to.

As an illustration, a user may be on their way home and as the userapproaches their home, the signal may fall below a minimum signal powerthreshold that is required to maintain a call. However, instead ofdropping the call, the call may be handed off to, for example, a PAN ora wireless local area network (WLAN) that may be located within theuser's home or an unlicensed wireless access system that may be locatedin the user's home. For example, with reference to FIG. 1, as accessdevice 126 migrates from the vicinity of the serving cell site 114 a inGSM network 114 towards the wireless interface 120 in the first location102, the call may be handed off from the cell site 114 a GSM network 114to the wireless interface 120 coupled to the gateway (GW) 118 at thefirst location 102. Accordingly, instead of the call being dropped, thecall has been seamlessly handed off and is now being handled by thegateway 118 via the wireless interface 120. The resulting wireless datamay then be communicated to the GSM network 114 via the broadbandconnection to the BAP 106 which is connected to the broadband wirelesslocal area network controller (BWC) 114 c.

In this illustration, the user is handed off to their PAN, WLAN, orother network located within their home. However, the user could alsohave been handed off to another network system such as a neighbor'snetwork. In any case, a gateway coupled to the wireless interface whichis providing service to the user may communicate at least a portion ofthe data to, for example, the cable or DSL BAP 106, the GSM network 114,CDMA network 112, other broadband access service provider 144, othercellular/PCS service provider 146 and central control and managementblock 148. The user may be provided with a notification that indicatesthe presence of the PAN, WLAN, or other unlicensed network. For example,an icon representative of a personal area network may be displayed onthe screen of the access device 126 once a soft or hard handoff isachieved from a serving cell site in GSM network 114 to the wirelessinterface 120 at the first location 102. A special tone or other audioalert may also be utilized to indicate that the call has switched to thewireless interface 120.

In instances where the gateway 118 detects a compatible access devicethat may be within the range of the wireless interface 120, the gateway118 may immediately advertise its available services to the accessdevice. In this regard, the gateway 118 may be adapted to transmitservice advertisements to the access device in order to alert a user ofthe access device of the types of services that are being offered by thegateway 118. Signals containing icons representative of the services maybe transmitted to and displayed on a screen of the access device and/oraudio alerts may be utilized to notify the user of these services.

In another embodiment of the invention, quality of service (QoS) mayalso be advertised by the gateway 118. For example, when a user is beingserviced by the wireless interface 120, the gateway 118 may advertisethat stereo audio is available.

Access devices may be pre-registered so that when they are within therange of the wireless interface 120, the gateway 118 may automaticallyrecognize them. For the pre-registration, an administrator of thegateway 118 at the first location 102 may register access devices thatare allowed to access the gateway 118 when they are within the range ofthe wireless interface 120. Pre-registration may be done prior to theaccess device accessing the gateway 118. During pre-registration, anadministrator or owner of the gateway 118 may enter registration orconfiguration information such as device IDs of access devices belongingto friends and/or family member's into a registration databaseassociated with the gateway 118. As a result, these devices will beallowed to access at least a portion of the services offered by thegateway 118 whenever they attempt to access the gateway 118 by pressinga single button, for example. Opportunistic registration permits a userof an access device to register with the gateway 118 automatically withlittle or no effort on the part of the user. In this regard,registration information may be sent to the gateway 118 from an accessdevice during an initial access and the gateway 118 may chose to acceptor deny the registration. The registration information may beautomatically or manually sent to the gateway 118.

In certain instances, an access device may not have been pre-registeredto access the network. In this case, one button access may be provided.A single button such as a hard coded button or software-enabled buttonon an access device may be programmed to transmit identifyinginformation from the access device to the gateway 118. The gateway 118may utilize this transmitted identifying information to grant or denyaccess to its services. For example, one button may be programmed tocontain access device identifying information related to accessing theservices provided by gateway 118 at the first location 102. The gateway118 may also be adapted to utilize digital certificates to authenticateaccess devices.

An interactive process may also be provided, whereby the gateway 118 mayprompt or request particular information, for example a password from anaccess device requiring network access. If the particular information isreceived, then access to at least some of the services provided by thegateway 118 may be granted and if not, the access to at least some ofthe gateway's services may be denied.

In another embodiment of the invention, the one button access may beprovided via software-enabled button (soft button) or hardware-enabledbutton (hard button). In this regard, the software button may bedisplayed on a screen of an access device.

A “walled garden” approach may be utilized to provide access to theservices that may be offered by a particular gateway, for example,gateway 118. Under the walled garden approach, when an access devicefirst registers or is identified, a basic set of services may beprovided by the serving gateway 118 to the access device 124. The basicservices offered may vary among each gateway. At least some of the basicservices that are provided by a gateway such as gateway 118, may beoffered without authenticating the access device 124. However, otherservices may only be offered if an access device such as access device124 is properly authenticated. These services that are offered may beservices that were advertised by the gateway 118.

In an aspect of the invention, access to additional services may begranted based on, for example, user identity, access device identity andor user input. The services offered to an access device by a gateway maybe arranged in a hierarchical structure such as a tier. For example, ina first tier, a user may be prompted to enter membership informationsuch as a member identification number. Upon authentication of themembership identification number, the first tier may provide restrictedaccess with pop-up advertisements that may not be disabled. In a secondtier, for example, a user may be prompted to enter a password. Uponauthentication of the password, second tier information may providerestricted access to gateway services without pop-up advertisements. Ina third tier, for example, entering billing information such as anaccount number or credit card or check card number may provide unlimitedand/or unrestricted access to all the services offered by a gateway. Afourth tier may provide only operating instruction and information forguests.

An administrator of the gateway may establish the type of accessprovided by the walled garden. For example, if the first location 102 isa hotspot at a Café, the provider of the gateway may establish theservice access levels or tiers that may be provided by the gateway 118.

When an access device is within the range of the gateway 118, wirelessservice is handed off from a serving cell site 114 a in the GSM network114 to the gateway 118. The access device may be authenticated by thegateway 118 and permitted to access at least some of the servicesoffered by the gateway 118. Once the access device is authenticated, atleast a portion of the information on the access device may be madeavailable as a networked resource via the gateway 118. A user of theaccess device may chose whether information on the access device may bemade available to the gateway and if so, that information which will bemade available, and that information which will be unavailable to thegateway 118. In this regard, where information is made available, thegateway 118 may maintain a list of the resources that may be availableon access devices that may be coupled to the gateway 118. For example, alist of contact information, calendar information, audio files, videofile and/or data files stored on the access device may be sent to thegateway 118.

The resources that are available on the access device may also beadvertised to other access devices that may be in communication with thegateway 1118. Advertisement of the resources that may be available on anaccess device may be restricted to, for example, a list of particulardevices, a particular type of devices or to a particular user.Accordingly, a user may have to be properly authenticated prior tocertain information being made available to the user. Additionally,advertisement of the resources may cause certain icons representative ofthe resources to be displayed on other access devices. In a similarmanner, icons representative of the resources that may be available onthese other access devices may also be presented on the access device.

An access device may be provided with a welcoming screen that may allowa user of a device to sign up for either free or paid services. Once thesignup is complete, subsequent access by the user may be authenticatedby the gateway 118 utilizing the signup information. Whenever an accessdevice registers with and/or is authenticated by the gateway 118,information on the access device may be updated and/or synchronized withinformation that may be on the gateway 118.

Devices within the location of the gateway 118 may be configured toregister certain portions of their data content with the gateway 118through a gateway registration process. Once data for these devices isregistered to the gateway 118, the gateway may maintain a database,which keeps track of the data that is available, and its location.Accordingly, if the data previously stored in the database is no longeravailable, then information representative of the previously stored datamay be removed from the database. Data from devices coupled to thegateway 118 such as on laptops, CD players, digital video disk (DVD)players, TIVO, personal video recorders (PVRs), personal digitalassistants (PDAs) and other devices, may be registered with the gateway118. This data may comprise audio, video, still pictures, and/or text.

At least a portion of the registered data may be made available to othernetwork access devices via the gateway 118. In an aspect of theinvention, the gateway 118 may be adapted to maintain a searchable listof data that may be available via the gateway. In this regard, thegateway may comprise a search engine that may be utilized to locate anddistribute data that may be made available through the gateway 118. Inanother aspect of the invention, data may be made available to accessdevices via advertising by the gateway 118. Access devices may beconfigured to seek out particular data that may be of interest.Accordingly, an access device may be adapted to receive and process onlythose gateway advertisements may fit particular criteria. Thoseadvertisements that may not fit the particular criteria may be discardedor ignored.

When an access device is within the range of the gateway 118, wirelessservice may be handed off from a serving cell site 114 a in the GSMnetwork 114 to the gateway 118. The access device may be authenticatedby the gateway 118 and permitted to access at least some of the servicesoffered by the gateway 118. Once the access device is authenticated, auser of the access device may have a desire to locate a particular videopresentation. The user may access the search engine, which may have beenadvertised to the user's access device by the gateway 118. The searchengine may appear on the display of the user's access device as an icon.The user may then activate a search by selecting the search engine icon,inputting a name of the video presentation and executing the search.

In another embodiment of the invention, the gateway may be adapted toclassify information based on a given criterion. This classification mayassist with locating information based on a particular criterion. Inthis regard, a user of the access device may be presented with a list ofclassifications and may select one, which may be of interest based on aparticular criterion. This may narrow the focus of a search.

The gateway may also be utilized to facilitate seamless synchronizationof data between devices that may be wired or wirelessly coupled to thegateway 118. For example, audio files located in a music folder on a PCcoupled to the gateway 118 may be synchronized with a wireless mediaplayer coupled to a hot spot in an airport while a user of the wirelessaccess media player waits to board a flight. In this regard, the gatewaymay determine what files need to be synchronized and control how thesynchronization is accomplished. The same is true for files that may bedownloaded from the PC to the wireless access media player, and forfiles that may be uploaded from the wireless access media player to thePC. Calendar and/or contact information may also be updated and/orsynchronized with a mobile multimedia handset in a similar mannerutilizing the gateway 118.

A location-aware service determines an approximate location of a networkdevice and adapts delivery of a particular service application and/orcontent according to a quality of service criterion. The delivery oflocation-aware services may be controlled by the gateway 118. Forexample, a user of an access device may request playback of an audioclip via the gateway 118. After receiving the request for playback ofthe audio clip, the gateway 118 may determine that a channel between thegateway 118 and the user's access device may only be capable ofmaintaining a reduced playback rate. As a result, instead of sending 128kbps encoded audio data, then the gateway may send 96 kbps data. Hence,in a case where the audio data was originally stored in 128 kbps sampledaudio data, then the gateway 118 may transcode the 128 kbps sampled datato 96 kbps audio data.

In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, while the GSMnetwork 114 is servicing the access device, lower compression rates maybe utilized to provide service to the access device. However, when theaccess device roams within range of the wireless interface 120 and isbeing served by the gateway 118 through wireless interface 120, highercompression rates may be utilized. For example, audio data sampled at adata rate of 64 kbps may be utilized for playback on an MP3 enabledtelephone while the phone is being serviced by a cell site 114 a in theGSM network 114. However, once the MP3 enabled telephone is within theoperating range of the wireless interface 120 and is being serviced bythe gateway 118, the gateway 118 may automatically adapt to a higherdata rate of, for example, 92 kbps or 128 kbps.

Automatic format conversion by the gateway 118 may include convertingdata from a first format to at least a second format suitable fordelivery and/or display on an access device. This may permit data thatwould otherwise be incompatible with a first access device to be playedon that first access device. For the location-aware services based onQoS, data was converted from a first format 128 kbps to a second format96 kbps to achieve and/or maintain a particular QoS, but the data typeremained the same. In this case, the audio format and/or its data typemay be different. For example, if the audio format was MP3, then afterthe conversion, the format remained WAV and/or the sampling rate mayhave decreased from 128 kbps top 96 kbps.

In conventional wired caller ID systems, a name and/or directory number(DN) of a calling party may be transferred either in-band or out-of-bandto a called party and may be displayed on the called party's caller IDdisplay when a call is answered. In these conventional systems, thecaller ID information is limited to a callers name, directory number(DN), general location and/or time of call. In wireless telephonesystems, in order to save on bandwidth, only a caller's directory numberis transferred and displayed to a calling party. However, if the callingparty's directory number and name is stored in the called party's phone,then the stored name and stored directory number will be presented on adisplay of the called party's terminal. In this case, the storeddirectory number is compared with the transferred caller's directorynumber, and if a match occurs, then a name corresponding to the matchingdirectory number is also displayed on the called party's terminal.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the gateway 118 isadapted to determine the appropriate caller ID information that may bedisplayed in a called and/or calling party's caller ID. In this case,reverse caller ID information may be displayed on both a calling and acalled parties terminal by the gateway 118.

If a called and/or calling device is a mobile multimedia handset and/orlaptop, for example, contact or other personal information may bedisplayed the caller's and/or calling party's directory number. Thelevel or amount of information that may be displayed may be varied.Certain sensitive information relating to either the called or callingparty may be restricted from being displayed.

In current cellular communication systems, over the air (OTA)programming is utilized to program a cellular telephone during theprovisioning process. In some instances, cellular providers haveestablished websites that may be utilized or OTA programming. In thisregard, a cellular subscriber may access the website and enterinformation such as the assigned directory number and the electronicserial number of the cellular telephone being programmed.

In accordance with a representative embodiment of the invention, anaccess device may be registered using over the air programming via thegateway 118. A user of an access device may send access deviceinformation to the gateway 118 using, for example, a default interfacethat may be presented to and displayed on a screen of the access devicewhen the access device first enters the service area of the wirelessinterface 120. During registration, the capabilities of an accessdevices may be sent to the gateway 118 and may be shared with devicesthat may be coupled to the gateway 118.

Since the gateway acts as a registrar of information for all the accessdevices that may be wired or wirelessly coupled to it, the gateway mayfunction as a personal digital assistant for any of these accessdevices. In an illustrative example, a first device, a first PC and asecond PC are being serviced by the gateway 118. The first access devicereceives a call and the caller ID information shows the callers name,home directory number and home address. However, the first PC containsthe business address for the caller and the second PC contains themonthly calendar information for the caller. Assume that the caller hada desire to setup a business meeting. In accordance with an aspect ofthe invention, the gateway 118 may be adapted to provide the businessaddress of the caller to the first access device and also provide thecaller's calendar to the first access device. In this manner, thenetwork centrally provides all the information necessary for schedulingthe meeting. In this example, the first PC may belong to the user of thefirst access device and the second PC may belong to the caller.

This concept may be extended to a look-up or 411 directory assistance onthe Internet. The lookup may also be location dependent. In this regard,if a user is located in Hollywood and requests a hotel location, thegateway 118 may only cause the hotels that are located in Hollywood tobe displayed to the user.

The gateway 118 may also be adapted to create profile information basedon data usage. These created profiles may be utilized to create socialnetworks for people having common interests. Accordingly, users may bepermitted to post their interests and also select those people havingsimilar interests based on the created profile. Based on the createdprofile information and the posted user interests, the gateway 118 mayalso generate a list of those people who have similar interest and alsothose users that may potentially have similar interests.

Given the capability to seamlessly operate an access device as onemigrates from outside the home into the home, it is desirable to have asingle device that may be adapted to control at least some of thedevices that may be found within the home. In addition to its normalvoice or data communication operating mode, an access device may beconfigured to operate as a universal remote that may be utilized toremotely control a plurality or other devices such as a TV, DVD, CD,Stereo, display monitor, or a combination thereof. Most access devicescurrently have an IR transmitter, which may be adapted to communicatewith other IR receiver devices.

The access device may be used for wireless communication and forremotely controlling an electronic device with as a TV, CD/DVDrecorder/player, or other device. The access device may also include atleast one soft-button that may be enabled through the gateway 118 andmay be utilized to control any other device that may be coupled to thegateway 118.

The gateway 118 is adapted to virtually aggregate data that may bevisible from a plurality of access devices or other network devices.Although the gateway 118 may be adapted to store some service andcontent related information, the gateway 118 does not actually storecopies of data that resides the access devices and/or other networkdevices that may be wired or wirelessly coupled to it. However, thegateway 118 may store, for example, metadata information that may beutilized to locate and access the information stored on the accessdevices and/or other network devices. The gateway is therefore adaptedto function as a registrar of both service and content relatedinformation.

Whenever an access device registers with and/or is authenticated by thegateway 118, information may be collected from the access device andrelated metadata information may be updated and/or synchronized withinformation that may be currently stored on the gateway 118.Additionally, when a device is no longer being serviced by the gateway118, associated information may be released from the gateway 118. Inthis regard, the virtual aggregations function performed by the gateway118 guarantees that the most current information is accessible from theaccess devices.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram illustrating an exemplary communicationsystem 100, in accordance with a representative embodiment of thepresent invention. The communication system 100 shown in FIG. 2comprises a wireless interface 120, a gateway (GW) 118 with a modem 116,and an array of access devices such as, for example, a printer 103, astereo receiver 105, a laptop 117, a wireless personal digital assistant(PDA) 119, and digital video camera 121, at location 102. Thecommunication system 100 of FIG. 2 also comprises an access device 124that may correspond, for example, to the access devices 122, 124, 126 ofFIG. 1. A second location 104 within communication system 100 comprisesa router 130 with a modem 132, and a plurality of wireless accessdevices. The plurality of access devices at the second location 104 may,for example, comprise a personal computer (PC) 138, a laptop 136, and awireless personal digital assistant (PDA) 134. A peripheral such as, forexample, a digital camera 142 may be coupled to the personal computer138. Other peripherals such as, for example, printers, digital scanners,speakers, and the like, that are not shown in FIG. 2, may also becoupled to the personal computer 138 and/or laptop 136. The wirelessinterface 120 may comprise a plurality of interfaces such as, forexample, a Bluetooth interface, a cellular interface, and anycombination of an IEEE 802.11 a, b, g, and/or n interface, and/or anIEEE 802.15.3a ultra-wideband interface. Although the followingdiscussion refers frequently to the capabilities and actions of thegateway 118 and wireless interface 120, the same may be said of therouter 130 with the modem 132 of FIGS. 1 and 2, for example, withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

In accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention,a wireless access device such as access device 124 may be mobile, andmay move between the personal area network/wireless local area networkcoverage provided by wireless interface 120 at location 102, the widearea network coverage provided by, for example, GSM network 114, and thecoverage provided by the router 130 and modem 132 at location 104. Thelocation 102 may, for example, be the home of the user of the accessdevice 124, the home of a friend or relative of the user of accessdevice 124, or an office, business, etc., where the user of accessdevice 124 may travel. The location 104 may, for example, be a secondhome of the user of access device 124, the home of a friend or relative,an office, or may have no personal or business relationship with theuser of access device 124. In a representative embodiment of the presentinvention, the gateway 118 may comprise, for example, a set top box thatmay be coupled in a wireless or wired fashion to access devices such as,for example, a laptop computer or television, such as the laptop 117 andthe television 115 of FIG. 2. Access to the communication bandwidth of abroadband network as previously described may be provided by the gateway118 and the modem 116 to wired or wireless access devices in thevicinity of location 102, and via router 130 and modem 132 to wired orwireless access devices in the vicinity of location 104, as shown inFIG. 2. This architecture may provide extended access to wirelessnetworks such as, for example, the GSM network 114, CDMA network 112,other cellular/PCS service provider 146, Internet 140 and publicswitched telephone network 108, of FIG. 1. The modem 116 is shownconnected to a broadband access provider (BAP) 106 via a broadbandconnection 107. The broadband connection 107 may comprise, for example,a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, a cable network connection,a satellite connection, a T1 or T3 network connection, or similarbroadband communication link. The modem 116 is compatible with thebroadband connection 107, and may be, for example, a DSL modem, aDOCSIS-compliant cable modem, a satellite service modem, or T1 or T3compatible modem-type device. The broadband connection may provideaccess through BAP 106 to location 104, and via transport network 110to, for example, GSM network 114.

In the example illustration of FIG. 2, a user of the access device 124may or may not be engaged in communication with another system orsubscriber accessible via the GSM network 114, or other wide areanetwork of FIG. 1. Although the present example of FIG. 2 shows a GSMnetwork 114, a representative embodiment of the present invention may beemployed with respect to other wide area networks such as, for example,the CDMA network 112 and other cellular/PCS service provider 146, shownin FIG. 1.

When an access device such as, for example, the access device 124 ofFIG. 2 moves into the coverage area of a personal area network of, forexample, the wireless interface 120 and gateway 118, or the router 130,the access device 124 may be authenticated by the gateway 118 or router130. The authentication may involve the sharing or exchange ofidentification and/or authentication information by the access device124 with the gateway 118 or router 130. Details of an example of such aninteraction are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/039,020,entitled “Method And System For Providing Registration, Authentication,And Access Via A Broadband Access Gateway” (Attorney Docket No.15724US02 BU3607.3), filed Jan. 18, 2005, the complete subject matter ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. Oncethe access device 124 has been authenticated to the gateway 118, theaccess device 124 may be permitted to exchange multimedia informationand services available via the access devices in communication with thegateway 118, or via networks connected to the gateway 118. Informationabout the available multimedia information and services may be shared byand/or with the access device 124 via information exchanged by theaccess device 124 and the gateway 118 or router 130. Additionalinformation about the advertising of such information may be found inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/021,294, entitled “Method And SystemFor Extended Network Access Services Advertising Via A Broadband AccessGateway” (Attorney Docket No. 15723US02 BU3607.2), filed Dec. 23, 2004,the complete subject matter of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference, in its entirety.

In various representative embodiments of the present invention, theaccess devices such as access device 124 in communication with thegateway 118 and router 130 of FIG. 2 may comprise, for example, apersonal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a printer, a wirelesspersonal digital assistant (PDA), a stereo receiver, a digital scanner,a CD player, a digital video disk (DVD) players, a TIVO, a personalvideo recorder (PVRs), a mobile multimedia handset, and an MP3 enabledtelephone. Each of these devices may function as one or both of aprovider and consumer of multimedia information and services. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, a gateway or routersuch as the gateway 118 or router 130 of FIG. 2 may authenticate itselfto an access device such as the access devices described above, in orderto gain access to multimedia information or services that may beavailable through the access device. Although many of the examplespresented herein described access devices employing wirelesscommunication links, aspects of the present invention also apply toaccess devices employing wired communication links.

For example, in one representative embodiment of the present invention,a user may be listening to music while driving home from work, using anaccess device 124 such as, for example, a mobile multimedia handsetcontaining an MP3 player. Upon reaching the home or office destination,a wireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, the gateway118 of FIG. 2, may detect the presence of the access device 124 (e.g.,mobile multimedia handset), and the gateway and the mobile multimediahandset may exchange identification information. The identificationinformation may comprise, for example, access device identifiers,network addresses, media access control (MAC) addresses, electronicserial numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs) of users, anddigital certificates. The identification information may enable anaccess device such as the mobile multimedia handset to determine what,if any, details of the multimedia information and services it has tooffer that should be shared or “advertised” with the wireless broadbandaccess gateway. In this example, the access device 124 (e.g., mobilemultimedia handset) may interact with the wireless broadband accessgateway using, for example, a Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g or n, IEEE802.15.3a ultra-wideband, or other wireless link. The gateway may thenknow of the MP3 player, and the songs that are stored on the mobilemultimedia handset and that are available for playback, etc. Uponreceiving information about the multimedia information (e.g., songs) andservices (e.g., record, playback, catalog, etc.) that are available fromthe access device 124 (e.g., mobile multimedia handset with MP3 player),a wireless broadband access gateway in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention may share that information withother access devices with which it is in communication. The nature ofthe information that is shared may depend upon details in theidentification information exchanged during authentication, andidentification information it may have received from those other accessdevices.

In another of a representative embodiment of the present invention, auser may enter the personal area network/wireless wide area networkcoverage area of a wireless broadband access gateway such as, forexample, gateway 118 or router 130 of FIG. 2, accompanied by an accessdevice such as, for example, a digital video camera 121. The wirelessbroadband access gateway may detect the presence of the digital videocamera 121, and the gateway 118 and digital video camera 121 mayexchange identification information. The identification information maycomprise, for example, access device identifiers, network addresses,media access control (MAC) addresses, electronic serial numbers,personal identification numbers (PINs) of users, and digitalcertificates. The identification information may enable an access devicesuch as those described above to determine what details of themultimedia information and services it has to offer that should andshould not be shared or “advertised” with another access device via thewireless broadband access gateway. Upon receiving information about themultimedia information and services available from the digital videocamera 121 of this example, the wireless broadband access gateway mayprovide that information to other access devices with which it is incommunication, depending upon identification information exchangedduring authentication with the digital video camera 121, and thatreceived from other access devices. In this example, the digital videocamera 121 may communicate with the wireless broadband access gateway118, and the wireless broadband access gateway 118 may become aware ofthe digital video camera 121, the multimedia information that may beavailable, and the services (video record, playback, etc.) that thecamera may support. Upon receiving information about the multimediainformation (e.g., images or video) and services (e.g., record,playback, catalog, etc.) available from the access device (e.g., thedigital video camera 121), the wireless broadband access gateway 118 mayshare that information with other access devices with which it is incommunication, depending upon identification information it hasexchanged with those other access devices.

FIG. 3 shows an illustration of an exemplary administration screen 300that may correspond to a screen displayed on an access device in thecommunication system 100 shown in FIG. 2, for example, in accordancewith a representative embodiment of the present invention. Theadministration screen 300 of FIG. 3 shows information that may becollected by a wireless broadband access gateway such as, for example,the gateway 118 or router 130 of FIG. 2. The administration screen 300shown in FIG. 3 comprises columns of information using theclassifications “Users” 310, “Devices” 312, “Services” 314, and“Connections” 316. The “Users” 310 column lists the users that arecurrently registered or known to the wireless broadband access gateway.The “Services” 314 column displays the services that are currentlyavailable from the wireless broadband access gateway itself. The“Connections” 316 column lists the modes of communication available tothe wireless broadband access gateway. For example, the wirelessbroadband access gateway of the illustration of FIG. 3 supports WiFi(IEEE 802.11), Bluetooth, PSTN (public switched telephone network), andDSL (digital subscriber line) connections to networks and accessdevices.

The administration screen 300 illustrated in FIG. 3 also comprises a“Devices” 312 column, that lists a number of access devices such as, forexample, the access device 124, that are known to the wireless broadbandaccess gateway. For example, the wireless broadband access gateway ofthe illustration of FIG. 3 is aware of, and is capable of communicationwith a digital video camera that may correspond, for example, to thedigital video camera 121 of FIG. 2, a laser printer that may correspond,for example, to the laser printer 103 of FIG. 2, and a stereo that maycorrespond, for example, to the stereo 105 of FIG. 2. The “Devices” 312column of FIG. 3 also lists a mobile multimedia handset that maycorrespond, for example, to the access device 124 of FIG. 2, a laptopthat may correspond, for example, to the laptop 117 of FIG. 2, and a PDA(personal digital assistant) that may correspond, for example, to thePDA 119 of FIG. 2. In an embodiment of the present invention, a userhaving administrative privileges for the gateway 118 or router 130 mayselect any of the entries in the “Users” 310, “Devices” 312, “Services”314, and “Connections” 316 columns of the exemplary administrationscreen 300 in order to gain access to additional information about thatparticular item.

FIG. 4A shows an exemplary multimedia information screen 400 that may beaccessed by selecting the “Digital Video Camera” entry 313 of the“Devices” 312 column of FIG. 3, for example, and that may containinformation corresponding to the multimedia information stored on thedigital video camera 121 of FIG. 2, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention. The multimedia information screen400 may, for example, be accessed and displayed by any of a number ofaccess devices in communication with the wireless broadband accessgateway such as, for example, the access device 124, the laptop computer117, the personal computer 138 and the wireless PDA 134, of FIG. 2.Although the multimedia information screen 400 is shown in a tabularformat, the particular format and content of the multimedia informationscreen 400 shown in FIG. 4A do not represent limitations of the presentinvention, as other formats and content may be displayed withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Themultimedia information screen 400 comprises columns of information“Media Files” 410, “Format” 412, “Date” 414, “Duration” 416, “Size” 418,and “Share” 420. Entries in the “Media Files” 410 column identify thenames of media files known to a wireless broadband access gateway suchas, for example, the gateway 118 or router 130 of FIG. 2. The “Format”412, “Date” 414, “Duration” 416, “Size” 418, and “Share” 420 columnsprovide the media format, the date of recording, the length, the size inbytes, and whether the information is to be shared, respectively, forthe associated media file identified in the “Media Files” 410 column.For example, a video media file named “Family Vacation” 422 may havebeen stored in MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) format on Aug. 8,2004. The video recording is two hours, 47 minutes, 53 seconds inlength, and occupies 0.725 gigabytes of storage, and is sharable.Another example shown in FIG. 4A is an audio media file named “FallConcert” 430 that was stored in MP3 (MPEG-2, layer 3) format on Sep. 21,2003. The audio recording is one hour, 10 minutes, 27 seconds in length,and occupies 0.064 gigabytes of storage. This file is also sharable.

FIG. 4B shows an exemplary device services screen 450 containinginformation corresponding to the multimedia services available on thedigital video camera 121 of FIG. 2, for example, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. The device servicesscreen 450 may, for example, be accessed by selecting the “Show DeviceServices” button 434 of FIG. 4A. The user may return to display themultimedia information of the current access device by selecting the“Show Multimedia Information” button 480 of Device Services screen 450of FIG. 4B. The device services screen 450 of FIG. 4B may be accessedusing any of a number of access devices in communication with thewireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, the accessdevice 124, the laptop computer 117, the personal computer 138 and thewireless PDA 134, of FIG. 2. Although the device services screen 450 isshown in a tabular format, the particular format and content of thedevice services screen 450 shown in FIG. 4B do not represent limitationsof the present invention, as other formats and content may be displayedwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.The device services screen 450 comprises columns of information“Service” 460 and “ID Required” 462. Entries in the “Service” 460 columnidentify the types of services available from, in this example, a“Digital Video Camera” that may correspond to the digital video camera121 of FIG. 2. The second column, “ID Required” 462, lists for eachservice offered by the selected access device, the type ofidentification or authorization required for a user to make use of theservice. For example, for a user to have access to the “Video Playback,Catalog, Select” services 464 of the “Digital Video Camera” accessdevice, a user may be required to register a “MemberNo” with thewireless broadband access gateway. To further illustrate, access to the“MP3 Record” service 472 of the “Digital Video Camera” access device mayrequire that the user be identified as having provided “AdminID+PW”(administrative identifier with password) identifier to the wirelessbroadband access gateway.

FIG. 5A shows an exemplary multimedia information screen 500 that may beaccessed by selecting the “Mobile Multimedia Handset” entry 315 of the“Devices” 312 column of FIG. 3, for example, and that may containinformation corresponding to multimedia information stored on a mobilemultimedia handset that may be representative of the access device 124of FIG. 2, for example, in accordance with a representative embodimentof the present invention. The multimedia information screen 500 may, forexample, be accessed and displayed by any of a number of access devicesin communication with the wireless broadband access gateway such as, forexample, the laptop computer 117, the personal computer 138, and thewireless PDA 134, of FIG. 2. Although the multimedia information screen500 is shown in a tabular format, the particular format and content ofthe multimedia information screen 500 shown in FIG. 5A do not representlimitations of the present invention, as other formats and content maybe displayed without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. The multimedia information screen 500 comprises columns ofinformation “Media Files” 510, “Format” 512, “Date” 514, “Duration” 516,“Size” 518, and “Share” 520. As in the example of FIG. 4A, the entriesin the “Media Files” 510 column identify the names of media files knownto a wireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, the gateway118 or router 130 of FIG. 2. The “Format” 512, “Date” 514, “Duration”516, “Size” 518, and “Share” 520 columns provide the media format, thedate of recording, the length, the size in bytes, and whether theinformation is to be shared, respectively, for the associated media fileidentified in the “Media Files” 510 column. For example, a calendarmedia file named “Bob's Calendar” 522 is shown as having been stored inCAL (e.g., proprietary) format on Jul. 23, 2004. The calendar media fileoccupies 0.002 megabytes of storage, and is sharable. Another exampleshown in FIG. 5A is an audio media file named ‘Clapton “Live!’” 530 thatwas stored in MP3 (MPEG-2, layer 3) format on Jun. 10, 2004. The audiorecording is 43 minutes, 37 seconds in length, and occupies 0.057gigabytes of storage. This file is also sharable.

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary device services screen 550 containinginformation corresponding to the multimedia services available on themobile multimedia handset referred to in the description of FIG. 5A, forexample, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention. The device services screen 550 may, for example, be accessedby selecting the “Show Device Services” button 534 of FIG. 5A. The usermay return to display the multimedia information of the current accessdevice by selecting the “Show Multimedia Information” button 580 ofDevice Services screen 550 of FIG. 5B. The device services screen 550 ofFIG. 5B may be accessed using any of a number of access devices incommunication with the wireless broadband access gateway such as, forexample, the access device 124, the laptop computer 117, the personalcomputer 138 and the wireless PDA 134, of FIG. 2. Although the deviceservices screen 550 is shown in a tabular format, the particular formatand content of the device services screen 550 shown in FIG. 5B do notrepresent limitations of the present invention, as other formats andcontent may be displayed without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention. The device services screen 550 comprises columnsof information “Service” 560 and “ID Required” 562. Entries in the“Service” 560 column identify the types of services available from, inthis example, a “Mobile Multimedia Handset” that may correspond to theaccess device 124 of FIG. 2. The second column, “ID Required” 562, listsfor each service offered by the selected access device, the type ofidentification or authorization required for a user to make use of theservice. For example, for a user to have access to the “Still ImageDisplay, Catalog, Select” services 566 of the “Mobile MultimediaHandset” access device, a user may be required to register a “MemberNo”with the wireless broadband access gateway. To further illustrate,access to the “Phone Directory Store, Delete” service 580 of the “MobileMultimedia Handset” access device may require that the user beidentified as having provided “AdminID+PW” (administrative identifierwith password) identifier to the wireless broadband access gateway.

FIG. 6 shows an illustration of an exemplary display 600 that may bevisible on an access device that may correspond, for example, to theaccess device 124 of FIG. 2, upon entering the coverage area of awireless gateway, in accordance with a representative embodiment of thepresent invention. The display 600 of FIG. 6 comprises a networkindicator 610, a network services indicator area 612, a battery lifeindicator, a time of day indicator, and a day and date indicator. Thedisplay 600 also comprises a display area 620 to allow an access deviceto present graphical or textual information for a variety of reasons andfrom a number of sources. Upon arriving upon the coverage area of awireless broadband access gateway as described with respect to FIGS. 3,4A, 4B, 5A, and 5B, above, an access device in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may exchangeinformation that identifies the access device to the gateway. Thewireless broadband access gateway may receive identification informationfrom each of the access devices within the coverage area of the wirelessbroadband access gateway. The wireless broadband access gateway may alsocollect from each access device information describing the multimediainformation and media-related services that each access device choosesto make available. The gateway may select a portion of the collecteddescriptive information based upon the received identificationinformation. The display 600 of the arriving access device may then beupdated via the wireless broadband access gateway to reflect thedescriptive information for the multimedia information and media-relatedservices that the gateway selected based upon the identificationinformation that the arriving access device provided to the wirelessbroadband access gateway. For example, in the illustration of FIG. 6,the network indicator 610, and the text message 630 in the display area620 have been updated to indicate that a personal area network has beendetected. In addition, in the example of FIG. 6, the network servicesindicator area 612 has been updated to comprise an Internet protocol(IP) phone service icon 615, a printer service icon 616, a stereoentertainment icon 617, a pay music service icon 618, and a videoentertainment icon 619, showing those services advertised by thewireless broadband access gateway as being available to an appropriatelyidentified or authorized user of the access device. Further detailsconcerning the advertising of media services by a wireless broadbandaccess gateway may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______,entitled “Method And System For Extended Network Access ServicesAdvertising Via A Broadband Access Gateway” (Attorney Docket No.15723US02 BU3607.2), filed ______, the complete subject matter of whichis hereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. Theservices indicated in the network services indicator area 612 maycorrespond to the services offered by access devices about which awireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, gateway 118 orrouter 130 of FIG. 2, has become aware. For example, an access deviceentering the coverage area of the gateway described with respect to FIG.3, above, may display icons in the network services indicator area 612that may represent a portion of those multimedia information andservices shown in the “Devices” 312 and “Services” 314 columns of FIG.3. The user viewing the display 600 of FIG. 6 may select any of thedisplayed icons 615-619, to access multimedia information and servicesof access device(s) with which the wireless broadband access gateway isin communication.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary display 700 subsequent to the selection of thevideo entertainment icon 619 in the network services indicator area 612of the display 600 of FIG. 6, for example, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. The display 700comprises a network indicator 710, a network services indicator area712, a battery life indicator, a time of day indicator, and a day anddate indicator. The display 700 also comprises a display area 720 toallow an access device to present graphical or textual information for avariety of reasons and from a number of sources. The network servicesindicator area 712 in the example of FIG. 7 shows an Internet protocol(IP) phone service icon 715, a printer service icon 716, a stereoentertainment icon 717, a pay music service icon 718, and a videoentertainment icon 719, as also displayed in the network servicesindicator area 612 of FIG. 6. The display area 720 of FIG. 7, however,has been updated to show the video files available via the wirelessbroadband access gateway with which the access device is incommunication. The names of the video files shown in the display area720 of the example of FIG. 7 correspond to the MPEG format files of theentries for “Family Vacation” 422, “Bobby's Graduation” 424, and “HomeInventory” 426, because those video files are known to the wirelessbroadband access gateway with which the access device with display 700is in communication. Although only the video media files for the“Digital Video Camera” of FIG. 4A are shown in FIG. 7, video media filesfrom other access devices in communication with a wireless broadbandaccess gateway may also be listed, when available. In addition, althoughthe display area 720 shows a textual listing of the available videomedia files, other forms of presentation (e.g., graphical icons) mayalso be used.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary display 800 subsequent to the selection of thestereo entertainment icon 617 in the network services indicator area 612of the display 600 of FIG. 6, for example, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. Similar to thedisplay 700 of FIG. 7, the display 800 comprises a network indicator810, a network services indicator area 812, a battery life indicator, atime of day indicator, and a day and date indicator. The display 800also comprises a display area 820 to allow an access device to presentgraphical or textual information for a variety of reasons and from anumber of sources. The network services indicator area 812 in theexample of FIG. 8 shows an Internet protocol (IP) phone service icon815, a printer service icon 816, a stereo entertainment icon 817, a paymusic service icon 818, and a video entertainment icon 819, as displayedin the network services indicator area 612 of FIG. 6. The display area820 has been updated to show the audio media files available via thewireless broadband access gateway with which the access device is incommunication. In the example of FIG. 8, the names of the audio mediafiles shown in the display area 820 correspond to the MP3 format filesof the entries for “Fall Concert” 430 shown in FIG. 4A, and the entriesfor “Meeting w/Fred” 526, “News Update” 528, and ““Clapton ‘Live!’” 530of FIG. 5A, because those audio media files are known to the wirelessbroadband access gateway with which the access device with display 800is in communication. The example of FIG. 8 illustrates the ability of awireless broadband access gateway in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention to act as a focal point for accessto the multimedia information and services of a variety of accessdevices, in this case, media files from both the “Digital Video Camera”of FIGS. 4A and 4B, and the “Mobile Multimedia Handset” of FIGS. 5A and5B. It should again be noted that, although the display area 820 of FIG.8 shows a textual listing of the available audio media files, otherforms of presentation (e.g., graphical icons) may also be used.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart 900 illustrating an exemplary method ofsupporting the registration and sharing of access device data in awireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, the gateway 118and router 130 of FIG. 2, in accordance with a representative embodimentof the present invention. As an aid to understanding, the followingdiscussion of FIG. 9 makes reference to the elements of FIG. 2, althoughthe exemplary method of FIG. 9 is not limited to being performed by theelements of FIG. 2. It should be noted that the actions of gateway 118may also be performed with respect to the router 130. The methodillustrated by FIG. 9 begins at a start block 910 when a wirelessbroadband access gateway or router such as, for example, the gateway 118or router 130 is powered up. The flowchart is shown as having twoparallel paths in which activities may occur concurrently with respectto multiple access devices. In the left path of the example of FIG. 9,the method collects information describing multimedia information andmedia-related services that may be made available from each of theaccess devices within the coverage area of a wireless broadband accessgateway such as, for example access device 124 of FIG. 2 (block 918).Such descriptive information may comprise, for example, one or more of afile name, a file or media type, a file size, a duration or playbacktime, a member number, an administrative ID, an electronic serialnumber, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC)address, and information identifying the make and/or model of an accessdevice. This may occur, for example, as each access device establishescommunication with the gateway, or periodically while an access deviceis in the coverage area of the gateway. The exchange of such informationmay, for example, depend upon the successful authentication of thegateway and the access device to one another. This activity allowsaccess device(s) to register or share information describing multimediainformation and media-related services they may have available, andresults in the gateway having a collection of information describing allof the multimedia information and media-related services that may beavailable from all of the access devices with which the gateway is incommunication. The activity of the left pact of FIG. 9 is an ongoingprocess in which the appearance of new access devices or new sources ofmultimedia information and media related services grows the collectionof information, while time or the inability to access multimediainformation or media-related services previously registered may causethe collection of information to shrink.

The activities of the right path of FIG. 9 begin when a wirelessbroadband access gateway such as, for example, the gateway 118 of FIG. 2receives identification information from an arriving access device(block 912). In a representative embodiment of the present invention,the arriving access device may be an access device such as, for example,the access device 124 of FIG. 2, that has just entered the coverage areaof the wireless broadband access gateway, or an access device that mayhave re-submitted its identification information. At some time after thegateway 118 receives the identification information, the gateway 118 mayselect a portion of the descriptive information collected in the leftpath of FIG. 9, using the identification information from the arrivingaccess device (block 914) The gateway 118 may then share or distributewith the arriving access device selected portions of the informationdescribing the multimedia information and services that may be availablefrom the access devices with which the gateway is currently incommunication (block 916). The arriving access device may then use theinformation distributed by the gateway 118 to access the multimediainformation and media-related services resident on other access devices,or on the broadband network. Note that the gateway 118 may provideinformation allowing the access devices with which it is incommunication to access multimedia information or content on otheraccess devices, or that is accessible via a broadband connection, andmay not be the source or origin of such multimedia information. In suchan arrangement, the gateway 118 or router 130 may act to providevirtual, but not necessarily actual, aggregation of the multimediainformation and services available from the broadband network and thecollection of access devices with which the gateway may be incommunication. The method then ends (block 920).

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart 1000 illustrating an exemplary method ofsupporting the registration of access device data by an access device,with a wireless broadband access gateway such as, for example, thegateway 118 and router 130 of FIG. 2, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. For purposes ofclarity of understanding, the following method references the elementsof FIG. 2, although such method is not limited to being performed by theelements of FIG. 2. It should be noted that representative embodimentsof the present invention are not limited only to the elements shown inFIG. 2. As described in the examples provided above, the functionalityof the gateway 118 and the router 130 of FIG. 2 may be considered to beequivalent. The method illustrated in FIG. 10 begins at a start block1010, when an access device such as, for example, the access device 124of FIG. 2 enters the coverage area of a wireless broadband gateway suchas, for example, the gateway 118 or router 130. At some point, theaccess device 124 detects the presence of the gateway 118 (block 1012),and determines what available multimedia information and services it hasto share with others via the gateway (block 1014). The access device 124may then select from the collection of all multimedia information andservices that it has available, the multimedia information and servicesthat may be shared with others (block 1016). The selection process maybe based, for example, upon one or more of a file name, a file or mediatype, a file size, a duration or playback time information, and a userconfigurable share parameter alone or in combination with informationreceived by the access device from the gateway. Once the selectionprocess is complete, the access device may share the information aboutthe selected available multimedia information and services with thegateway (block 1018). The exchange of any information with the gateway118 may be dependent upon the identification and/or authorization of oneor both of the gateway 118 and the access device 124 to the other. Theinformation shared with the gateway 118 may comprise, for example, oneor more of a file name, a file or media type, a file size, a duration orplayback time, a member number, an administrative ID, an electronicserial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control(MAC) address, and information identifying the make and/or model of anaccess device. At some later time, the access device 124 may provideaccess to portions of the selected multimedia information and servicesto another access device via the gateway (block 1020). The access may bebased upon a request from another access device within the personal areanetwork served by the gateway, or from an entity outside of the coveragearea of the personal area network, via the broadband connection 107.Again, access to the multimedia information and services of the accessdevice 124 may be based upon identification and/or authorization of therecipient of the multimedia information and/or services, and may includethe use of, for example, a digital certificate mechanism. The method ofFIG. 10 then ends (block 1022).

Aspects of the present invention may be seen in a system supportingsharing of at least one of multimedia information and media-relatedservices among a plurality of access devices. A representativeembodiment of the present invention may comprise a gatewaycommunicatively coupled to a broadband network and at least one wirelessinterface. The gateway may be capable of selectively exchangingmultimedia information among the at least one wireless interface and thebroadband network, and of communicating with the plurality of accessdevices via the at least one wireless interface. The gateway may also becapable of collecting, from at least one of the plurality of accessdevices, information descriptive of at least one of multimediainformation and media-related services available on the at least one ofthe plurality of access devices. The gateway may be capable of selectinga portion of the collected information based upon identificationinformation received from at least one other of the plurality of accessdevices, and of distributing to the at least one other of the pluralityof access devices the selected portion of the collected information.Multimedia information may comprise at least one of streaming video,broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitizedstill images, digitized video, and digitized music, and media-relatedservices may comprise at least one of accessing, recording, playing,exchanging, transmitting, receiving, converting, and translating ofmultimedia information.

In various representative embodiments of the present invention, theidentification information may comprise at least one of an identifier ofan access device, a user identifier, a member identifier, an electronicserial number, a media access control (MAC) address, an administrativeidentifier, a password, a commercial credit card number, a personalidentification number, and a digital certificate. The at least onewireless interface may be compliant with the Bluetooth V1.2 orcompatible personal area network (PAN) specification, may communicateusing an unlicensed frequency band, and may communicate at a frequencyof approximately 2.4 gigahertz. The at least one wireless interface maybe compliant with at least one of the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11nstandards. The broadband network in various representative embodimentsof the present invention may comprise at least one of a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, acellular network, and the Internet. The cellular network may comprise atleast one of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, atime division multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multipleaccess (CDMA) network, and a universal mobile telecommunications system(UMTS) network. The information descriptive of multimedia informationmay comprise at least one of a file name, a file type, a media type, afile size, a duration, a playback time, a member number, anadministrative ID, an electronic serial number, an Internet protocol(IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address, informationidentifying a make of an access device, and information identifying amodel of an access device. In various representative embodiments inaccordance with the present invention, the plurality of access devicesmay comprise at least one of a mobile multimedia handset, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, adigital camera, a printer, headphones, and a pointing device.

Further aspects of the present invention may be found in a methodsupporting the sharing of at least one of multimedia information andmedia-related services using a plurality of access devices. Such amethod may comprise collecting, via at least one of a wireless and awired network, information describing at least one of multimediainformation and media-related services available from the plurality ofaccess devices. The method may also comprise receiving informationidentifying at least one of the plurality of access devices, andselecting a portion of the collected information based upon the receivedidentification information. The method may comprise distributing theselected portion of collected information to the at least one of theplurality of access devices. The information describing multimediainformation available from the plurality of access devices may compriseat least one of a file name, a file type, a media type, a file size, aduration, a playback time, a member number, an administrative ID. Theinformation describing multimedia information available from theplurality of access devices may also comprise an electronic serialnumber, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC)address, information identifying a make of an access device, andinformation identifying a model of an access device.

In various representative embodiments of the present invention, theinformation describing media-related services may compriserepresentations of at least one of accessing, recording, playing,exchanging, transmitting, receiving, converting, and translating ofmultimedia information. The wireless network may be compliant with theBluetooth V1.2 or compatible personal area network (PAN) specification,may communicate using an unlicensed frequency band, and may communicateat a frequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz. In addition, the wirelessnetwork may be compliant with at least one of the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g,and 802.11n standards. A method in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention may also comprise exchanging, via atleast one of the wireless and a broadband network, the at least one ofmultimedia information and media-related services. The broadband networkmay comprise at least one of a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, acable network, a satellite network, a cellular network, and theInternet. The cellular network may comprise at least one of a globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM) network, a time division multipleaccess (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network,and a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network. Invarious representative embodiments of the present invention, themultimedia information may comprise at least one of streaming video,broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitizedstill images, digitized video, and digitized music. In addition, theplurality of access devices may comprise at least one of a mobilemultimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personalcomputer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer,headphones, and a pointing device.

Yet other aspects of the present invention may be observed in amachine-readable storage, having stored thereon a computer programhaving a plurality of code sections executable by a machine, for causingthe machine to perform the operations of the method described above.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, the wirelesslocal area networks may include data networks such as, for example,Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g/ncompliant wireless networks such as those located in homes, hot spots oran office. Such local area networks may operate in unlicensed radiofrequency spectrum such as in, for example, the 2.4 and 5 gigahertzregions. Examples of wide area networks may include cellular digitalpacket data (CDPD), voice and data networks such as public switchedtelephone networks (PSTN), Global System For Mobile Communication (GSM),GSM General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), GSM Short Message Service(SMS), GSM Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution (EDGE), NorthAmerican Time Division Multiplex Access (TDMA), iDEN, Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA) and CDMA2000 1xRT, Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) network, to name only a few.

A personal area network (PAN) may be formed by a plurality of wirelesscommunication access devices such as, for example, mobile multimediahandsets, PDAs, telephones, and computers. Other elements of such anetwork may, for example, include computer peripherals such as digitalscanners, digital cameras, printers, headphones, and pointing devices,that may be located within the immediate proximity of a person. A PANmay be an ad-hoc network of such communication devices. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, access deviceswithin the PAN may communicate with other access devices within the PANand also with other access devices that are located in other networksaccessible via the PAN. The personal area networks may include datanetworks such as, for example, a Bluetooth compliant network, andInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE) 802.15.3acompliant wireless networks. Such personal area networks may operate inunlicensed radio frequency spectrum such as, for example, the 2.4 and 5gigahertz regions. Details of one example of a personal area network areprovided in the document “Bluetooth Core Specification V1.2”, Nov. 5,2003, from Bluetooth SIG, Inc., the complete subject matter of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. For example,in a Bluetooth® wireless PAN, a first Bluetooth®-enabled wireless accessdevice may communicate with a second Bluetooth®-enabled wireless accessdevice within the PAN. Additionally, either of the first and secondBluetooth®-enabled wireless access devices may communicate with theInternet or another LAN or WAN via the Bluetooth® wireless PAN.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, a gateway maybe adapted to provide seamless and transparent communication between aplurality of access devices and a plurality of networks. Thefunctionality of the gateway may be divided, for example, intoapplication content functionality, and configuration and managementfunctionality. The application content functionality may, for example,deal with the types of applications that may be supported by the gatewayas well as the various types of data that may be received, processedand/or transmitted by the gateway. In this regard, application contentfunctionality may also include the manner in which other devices and/orsystems may utilize data from the gateway.

Content and application services are important because all theinformation coming into and leaving the home from either the WAN side(i.e., the broadband connection side), or from the PAN side (i.e., theaccess device side) converges at the gateway. The PAN side may compriseBluetooth, wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n), IEEE 802.15.3aultra-wideband, or cellular, for example. Notwithstanding, the gatewaymay be adapted to convert, for example, wirelessly receivedGSM-formatted information into, for example, Internet protocol(IP)-formatted information and in reverse, converts IP-formattedinformation into wireless GSM-formatted information suitable forover-the-air transmission. Support for other wireless communicationprotocols such as TDMA, CDMA, and UMTS may also be provided. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, the gateway maycomprise suitable circuitry, logic and/or code that may be adapted toreceive and process MPEG related data, which may be suitable for displayon a screen. The gateway in an embodiment of the present inventionfunctions as a focal point where data converges from a plurality ofwired and wireless services. Although, in a particular embodiment of thepresent invention the gateway may do very little in terms of actualcontent aggregation, there is virtual aggregation of data. The convergeddata may be integrated and or otherwise utilized to offer uniqueopportunities for launching various content and application servicesfrom a single strategic location. Since the gateway in an embodiment ofthe present invention is the focal point where data converges, one ormore protocol stacks may be employed for launching the various contentand application services.

The gateway in a representative embodiment of the present invention maybe adapted to route calls based on established rules that may beprogrammed into the gateway. For example, the gateway may be governed bya rule which states that local calls are to be routed to an incumbentlocal exchange carrier (iLEC), while long distance calls are to behandled by Long Distance Carrier Company. Accordingly, when a calloriginates at the gateway and it is determined that the call is a localcall, the gateway may be adapted to route the call to the iLEC. However,if the gateway determines that the call is a long distance call, thenthe gateway may be adapted to route the call to Long Distance CarrierCompany.

A representative embodiment of the present invention may leverageexisting broadband infrastructure that is commonly found in many homesand businesses today. Because a consumer is already paying for the useof the broadband infrastructure in their home or office, leveraging theuse of the existing broadband infrastructure for communication with widearea networks results in minimal or no communication costs. Thebroadband infrastructure may be, for example, a cable or DSLinfrastructure.

The wireless interface function provided by the gateway located within ahome, for example, may be utilized to route or communicate a great dealof traffic to a wired network such as a broadband network or a wirelessnetwork such as a GSM or CDMA network via a broadband connection. Inother words, the wireless gateway infrastructure provided by arepresentative embodiment of the present invention provides a scalablenetwork infrastructure that rides on an existing access infrastructurealready supplied by a broadband service provider to a home, office orbusiness. Additionally, the scalable infrastructure provided by thegateway also solves the problems associated with signal penetration andpropagation, thereby providing improved quality of service (QoS). From amarket perspective, a wireless service provider may now have access tothe necessary infrastructure to provide improved wireless services tousers within a home or office. Accordingly, in order to rapidly increasetheir growth, wireless service providers may now target that portion ofthe in-home landline or plain old telephone system (POTS) business,which have traditionally been handled by incumbent local exchangecarriers (ILECs) or other LECs.

The unlicensed mobile access gateway described above may possess asignificant amount of processing power. The gateways of existing systemsfall short of realizing the full potential of the merged wired andwireless communication network that is enabled by a representativeembodiment of the present invention. Numerous basic and enhancedcommunication services may be enabled or provided by the gateway.Support for access devices such as, for example, mobile multimediahandsets and PDAs may be involved in order to utilize these basic andenhanced communication services enabled by the new wave of digitaltechnologies. Current and/or proposed mobile access gateway systems,however, do not provide the range of support needed for their use by theeveryday consumer.

The present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. The present invention may berealized in a centralized fashion in at least one computer system, or ina distributed fashion where different elements are spread across severalinterconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or otherapparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein issuited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be ageneral-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when beingloaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carriesout the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willinclude all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

1. A system supporting sharing of at least one of multimedia informationand media-related services among a plurality of access devices, thesystem comprising: a gateway communicatively coupled to a broadbandnetwork and at least one wireless interface, the gateway capable ofselectively exchanging multimedia information among the at least onewireless interface and the broadband network, and of communicating withthe plurality of access devices via the at least one wireless interface;the gateway capable of collecting, from at least one of the plurality ofaccess devices, information descriptive of at least one of multimediainformation and media-related services available on the at least one ofthe plurality of access devices; the gateway capable of selecting aportion of the collected information based upon identificationinformation received from at least one other of the plurality of accessdevices; and the gateway capable of distributing to the at least oneother of the plurality of access devices the selected portion of thecollected information.
 2. The system according to claim 1 whereinmultimedia information comprises at least one of streaming video,broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitizedstill images, digitized video, and digitized music.
 3. The systemaccording to claim 1 wherein media-related services comprise at leastone of accessing, recording, playing, exchanging, transmitting,receiving, converting, and translating of multimedia information.
 4. Thesystem according to claim 1 wherein the identification informationcomprises at least one of an identifier of an access device, a useridentifier, a member identifier, an electronic serial number, a mediaaccess control (MAC) address, an administrative identifier, a password,a commercial credit card number, a personal identification number, and adigital certificate.
 5. The system according to claim 1 wherein the atleast one wireless interface is compliant with the Bluetooth V1.2 orcompatible personal area network (PAN) specification.
 6. The systemaccording to claim 1 wherein the at least one wireless interfacecommunicates using an unlicensed frequency band.
 7. The system accordingto claim 1 wherein the at least one wireless interface communicates at afrequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz.
 8. The system according toclaim 1 wherein the at least one wireless interface is compliant with atleast one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n standards.
 9. The systemaccording to claim 1 wherein the broadband network comprises at leastone of a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, asatellite network, a cellular network, and the Internet.
 10. The systemaccording to claim 9 wherein the cellular network comprises at least oneof a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, a timedivision multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access(CDMA) network, and a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS)network.
 11. The system according to claim 1 wherein the informationdescriptive of multimedia information comprises at least one of a filename, a file type, a media type, a file size, a duration, a playbacktime, a member number, an administrative ID, an electronic serialnumber, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC)address, information identifying a make of an access device, andinformation identifying a model of an access device.
 12. The systemaccording to claim 1 wherein the plurality of access devices comprisesat least one of a mobile multimedia handset, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, a digitalcamera, a printer, headphones, and a pointing device.
 13. A methodsupporting the sharing of at least one of multimedia information andmedia-related services using a plurality of access devices, the methodcomprising: collecting, via at least one of a wireless and a wirednetwork, information describing at least one of multimedia informationand media-related services available from the plurality of accessdevices; receiving information identifying at least one of the pluralityof access devices; selecting a portion of the collected informationbased upon the received identification information; and distributing theselected portion of collected information to the at least one of theplurality of access devices.
 14. The method according to claim 13wherein the information describing multimedia information available fromthe plurality of access devices comprises at least one of a file name, afile type, a media type, a file size, a duration, a playback time, amember number, an administrative ID, an electronic serial number, anInternet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address,information identifying a make of an access device, and informationidentifying a model of an access device.
 15. The method according toclaim 13 wherein the information describing media-related servicescomprises representations of at least one of accessing, recording,playing, exchanging, transmitting, receiving, converting, andtranslating of multimedia information.
 16. The method according to claim13 wherein the wireless network is compliant with the Bluetooth V1.2 orcompatible personal area network (PAN) specification.
 17. The methodaccording to claim 13 wherein the wireless network communicates using anunlicensed frequency band.
 18. The method according to claim 13 whereinthe wireless network communicates at a frequency of approximately 2.4gigahertz.
 19. The method according to claim 13 wherein the wirelessnetwork is compliant with at least one of the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11nstandards.
 20. The method according to claim 13 further comprisingexchanging, via at least one of the wireless and a broadband network,the at least one of multimedia information and media-related services.21. The method according to claim 20 wherein the broadband networkcomprises at least one of a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, acable network, a satellite network, a cellular network, and theInternet.
 22. The method according to claim 21 wherein the cellularnetwork comprises at least one of a global system for mobilecommunications (GSM) network, a time division multiple access (TDMA)network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network, and a universalmobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network.
 23. The methodaccording to claim 13 wherein the multimedia information comprises atleast one of streaming video, broadcast video, voice, digital data,text, digitized audio, digitized still images, digitized video, anddigitized music.
 24. The method according to claim 13 wherein theplurality of access devices comprises at least one of a mobilemultimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personalcomputer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer,headphones, and a pointing device.
 25. A machine-readable storage,having stored thereon a computer program having a plurality of codesections for operating a gateway supporting the sharing of at least oneof multimedia information and media-related services among a pluralityof access devices, the code sections executable by a machine for causingthe machine to perform the operations comprising: collecting, via atleast one of a wireless and a wired network, information describing atleast one of multimedia information and media-related services availablefrom the plurality of access devices; receiving information identifyingat least one of the plurality of access devices; selecting a portion ofthe collected information based upon the received identificationinformation; and distributing the selected portion of collectedinformation to the at least one of the plurality of access devices. 26.The machine-readable storage according to claim 25 wherein theinformation describing multimedia information available from theplurality of access devices comprises at least one of a file name, afile type, a media type, a file size, a duration, a playback time, amember number, an administrative ID, an electronic serial number, anInternet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address,information identifying a make of an access device, and informationidentifying a model of an access device.
 27. The machine-readablestorage according to claim 25 wherein the information describingmedia-related services comprises representations of at least one ofaccessing, recording, playing, exchanging, transmitting, receiving,converting, and translating of multimedia information.
 28. Themachine-readable storage according to claim 25 wherein the wirelessnetwork is compliant with the Bluetooth V1.2 or compatible personal areanetwork (PAN) specification.
 29. The machine-readable storage accordingto claim 25 wherein the wireless network communicates using anunlicensed frequency band.
 30. The machine-readable storage according toclaim 25 wherein the wireless network communicates at a frequency ofapproximately 2.4 gigahertz.
 31. The machine-readable storage accordingto claim 25 wherein the wireless network is compliant with at least oneof the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a,802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n standards.
 32. The machine-readablestorage according to claim 25 wherein the code sections executable by amachine further causing the machine to perform the operationscomprising: exchanging, via at least one of the wireless and a broadbandnetwork, the at least one of multimedia information and media-relatedservices.
 33. The machine-readable storage according to claim 32 whereinthe broadband network comprises at least one of a digital subscriberline (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, a cellularnetwork, and the Internet.
 34. The machine-readable storage according toclaim 33 wherein the cellular network comprises at least one of a globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM) network, a time division multipleaccess (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network,and a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network.
 35. Themachine-readable storage according to claim 25 wherein the multimediainformation comprises at least one of streaming video, broadcast video,voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitized still images,digitized video, and digitized music.
 36. The machine-readable storageaccording to claim 25 wherein the plurality of access devices comprisesat least one of a mobile multimedia handset, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, a digitalcamera, a printer, headphones, and a pointing device.